Developer-speak and Haymeadow

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Even after many years of attending public meetings regarding development in and around Eagle, I have learned yet a little more about developer-speak.

As the Haymeadow development sketch plan process is winding down with only one more meeting for public comment, the developer, Ric Newman, had some words at the microphone himself at Tuesday's Eagle Town Board meeting.

We, who have followed recent politics, have been waiting for this one and predicted it coming. It is, after all, the logic that has driven the actions of our town for a few years now.

"Eagle needs more people," is Newman's justification for over 1,000 new homes on Brush Creek. "We need more critical mass to spend much needed money to pay for all that the town needs," said the Florida developer. I wonder if he has considered just where these thousands of people will earn their spending money?

It reminds me of the kid who cut his hair too short on one side, and in an effort to balance it, cuts the other side even shorter. He eventually cuts it off altogether.

We now have retail at Eagle River Station. So, for balance we now need spenders, to attract more retail, which requires even more spenders. And much like the kid's original head of hair, which is gone, so will be Eagle as we know it.

Not once, in any conversation with any citizen of Eagle have I ever heard a wish for more people.

"We love our town the way it is" is what I usually hear. "We expect some growth, but not at the expense of what Eagle represents to us."

So unless we march on town hall, a lot more people is what we're going to get as they pursue the mighty dollar. And by the way, as in the past, Eagle will survive just fine without this major development. Eagle River Station justified itself without Haymeadow, right?

Final public comment for sketch plan deliberation is Sept. 11. Write, call, or attend if this demise of Brush Creek offends you, after all of our comments to preserve it.